Cryptocurrencies, despite drawbacks and links to the dark web, have nevertheless come to define how we think of digital currencies. Daniel Araya noted that central banks around the world are working to redefine them as government-backed, secure, accessible and inclusive — and private, a fundamental criterion. While Canada was once ahead of the curve in thinking about a modern digital payments system, it has much catching up to do after years of lagging, as Robert Fay and David Dodge wrote in The Globe and Mail. The delays in modernizing banking and payment systems have cost Canadians dearly.
CIGI’s workshop with Bennet Jones LLP pushed the envelope on ways that public and private sector players can modernize the payments system and promote open banking along with other aspects of digital currencies — but only with consumers at the table, as Fay and Vass Bednar noted in the Financial Post.